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Coronavirus update |10 March 2020

Coronavirus update

(L to r) Dr Gedeon, Minister Dogley and Mr Brutus during the press conference yesterday (Photo: Joena Meme)

‘Cruise ship activities will be halted,’ says tourism minister

 

With increasing unnecessary panic that have swept social media over the arrival of the Norwegian Spirit, a cruise ship that will be docking at the Seychelles port today, the Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports & Marine, Didier Dogley along with the Public Health Commissioner, Dr Jude Gedeon, and the chief executive of the Seychelles Ports Authority (SPA), Ronny Brutus, held a press conference yesterday afternoon at the Botanical House.

The press conference was to give the media details of a meeting they had held with key government representatives from the health ministry and port authority moments before.

“The meeting forms part of a series of consultations we are doing concerning COVID-19 and the impact it is having on tourism as the transmission of the virus is through tourism,” said the minister.

He added that during the meeting they discussed the arrival of the Norwegian Spirit as well as halting cruise ship activities on the island as most cruise ships come from European areas that have been affected.

Minister Dogley noted that they had been in contact with the necessary authorities on board the ship since last week and had informed them that passengers will not be given permission to disembark. However the ship will be docked at the port to refuel.

It has also been noted that none of the passengers aboard the ship are sick.

Mr Brutus noted that they are in contact with the ship’s agent and they will be the ones letting the port know if they need fuel or food and based on the information that they give, the port will get a better understanding of the level of access they will have with it to minimise contact with passengers.

“Normally our cruise ship season lasts until the end of March, but this year it went longer than usual and was going to end in May, so we discussed with the health ministry and port and have decided to stop all incoming cruise ships to enter the country,” he said.

On the health ministry’s part, Dr Gedeon said that the reason the decision is being taken is that it will be difficult to do an adequate screening on a cruise ship as there are thousands of people and it is also difficult to know what kind of external contact they have had at other ports that have had recorded cases.

“When you have a suspected case with several thousands of people in the same area there won’t be enough resources to care for all of them if the situation deteriorates as we will have to bring them to shore,” said Dr Gedeon.

Since the outbreak, airlines around the world have experienced a rise in flight cancellations and many people are asking why Air Seychelles has not cancelled flights from affected countries. Dr Gedeon noted that there will be a negative impact on the country if flights are cancelled so they will be more diligent and precautious when it comes to detecting and surveying suspicious cases.

He added that a new list of travel restrictions will be made public today.

There was also an incident at the airport yesterday were the pilot noted that there was a group of people on board a transit flight from Mumbai that were experiencing some symptoms. A team was dispatched as soon as the plane landed and the suspects were examined by a doctor who noted that they were ok.

Dr Gedeon also said that in the instance of a breakout, workers in key areas such as hospital, utilities and others will have to maintain their post and businesses should prepare themselves to continue their business.

He also noted that wearing a face mask is certainly not an iron-clad guarantee that you won’t get sick as it won’t stop the wearer from inhaling small airborne particles, which can cause infection. Nor do these masks form a snug seal around the face.

"You can increase your risk of getting it by wearing a mask if you are not a health care provider," Dr Gedeon said. "Folks who don't know how to wear them properly tend to touch their faces a lot and actually can increase the spread of coronavirus," he added.

Dr Gedeon noted that in the worst case scenario where the isolation unit is overwhelmed they will use the Perseverance hospital.

“If we are getting more patients than we have prepared for then under the public health act we have the power to seize any facility, be it government or private, that will be transformed into a treatment centre,” he noted.

At the isolation centre there is currently one female patient who came from the island from France on March 1. She started showing symptoms yesterday morning where doctors are currently running tests.

“We currently have nine Seychellois from Italy under observation under quarantine and so far everyone is healthy and we will be releasing the first person on Friday,” said Dr Gedeon.

He added that there have been requests from Seychellois living abroad who want to come back and arrangements are being made.

“If we get an influx of people in quarantine then we will be placing some under surveillance at home,” said Dr Gedeon.

With over 100,000 cases recorded around the world, one thing that all countries seem to have in common is the amount of unnecessary panic being spread around much faster than the virus itself.

Many people seem to be ignoring the actual experts. Instead, they’re sharing social media posts of articles from self-appointed ‘experts’, and sharing unsourced information on where the virus came from, or what kind of snake oil you should be using to ward it off.

The best thing for most people to do at this instance is to listen to their health professionals and be cautious.

 

Christophe Zialor

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